Massachusetts Pine Tree Shilling
Robert Sanderson, American, 1608 - 1693
John Hull, American, 1624 - 1683
1667-1674
Silver
Overall: 1 1/8 in. (2.8 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Louise C. Harrington in honor of Frank L. Harrington, Class of 1924
M.991.3.6
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
1600-1800
Object Name
Money
Research Area
Numismatics: World Currency
On view
Inscriptions
obv: MASATHUSETS.IN.[around pine tree] rev: NEWENGLAND.AN.DOM. / 1652 / XII
Label
The objects in this case function as relics, or things that physically link the past with the present. The cannonball from the Battle of Bennington, recorded as “ploughed up in 1894,” is a perfect example. The idea of the American Revolution also lived on through those who participated, including both everyday people like Samuel Peaslee, the owner of the powder horn who served in the 21st Regiment during the Revolutionary War, and famous figures such as George Washington. Other objects, including the pine tree shilling, took symbols like the pine tree featured on many Revolutionary-era flags and spread them widely. While many of these objects have little or no inherent value, their association with historical figures and events imbues them with symbolic power.
From the 2025-26 exhibition Revolution Reconsidered: History, Myth, and Propaganda, curated by Michael W. Hartman (Jonathan Little Cohen Curator of American Art), Haely Chang (Jane and Raphael Bernstein Associate Curator of East Asian Art), Elizabeth Rice Mattison (Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Academic Programming and Curator of European Art), Ashley B. Offill (Curator of Collections), and Evonne Fuselier (Hood Museum Board of Advisors Mutual Learning Fellow)
Course History
HIST 9.01, America: From Invasion to Independence, Paul Musselwhite, Fall 2019
CLST 11.19/HIST 94.16, Roman Coins as Text, Roberta Stewart, Winter 2022
HIST 5.14, Americas: Invasion to Independence, Paul Musselwhite and Ernesto Mercadeo-Montero, Fall 2022
History 5.14, Americas: From Invasion to Independence, Ernesto Mercado-Montero and Paul Musselwhite, Fall 2023
Classics 11.19, History 94.16, Before Billboards and Twitters: Coins as Text, Roberta Stewart, Fall 2024
Exhibition History
Revolution Reconsidered: History, Myth, and Propaganda, Harteveldt Family Gallery and Owen Robertson Cheatham Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 18, 2025 - August 8, 2026.
Provenance
Collected by Frank Leighton Harrington, Sr. (1902-1988), Worcester, Massachusetts; bequeathed to Louise Cronin Harrington (1904-2000), Worcester, Massachusetts, 1988; given to present collection, 1991.
Catalogue Raisonne
Breen 42
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